By Hannah Perez
Elizabeth Warren has introduced a sweeping bill that seeks to ban crypto exchanges based outside the US from trading with sanctioned Russian addresses.
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United States Senator Elizabeth Warren has introduced a new legislative bill designed to curb the use of cryptocurrencies by sanctioned Russian entities.
news media CoinDesk and The Block noted that the regulation, entitled “Digital Asset Sanctions Compliance Enhancement Act“, I would target both companies and digital asset service providers in the US and abroad.
According to a draft reviewed by both outlets, the law requires the White House to produce a report on crypto exchanges that have any affiliation with Russia. It also grants a broad authority to the Treasury Department to prohibit exchanges and other crypto trading providers transact with addresses associated with Russia. CoinDesk He quoted the document:
This is a bill that would authorize the president to sanction foreign cryptocurrency companies that do business with sanctioned Russian entities and authorize the Treasury secretary to act.
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Senator Warren Introduces Bill
In accordance with CoinDeskthe bill says that the presidential administration would have the task of identifying “any foreign person” that operates a cryptocurrency exchange or facilitates digital asset transactions that has also supported sanctions evasion by Russian individuals named on Russia’s sanctions list the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Additionally, the US president could sanction these exchange operators, unless there was a national security interest in not doing so.
Under the regulations, the secretary of the US Treasury could require cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the US not to transact or work with cryptocurrency addresses belonging to individuals based in Russiaif this is considered to be in the national interest. The Treasury secretary would have to report to Congress on this decision.
You would also be tasked with identifying exchanges that might be on “high risk of sanctions evasion” or other crimes, and report these entities to Congress.
A provision exceeds the Russia issue
On the other hand, the bill appears to extend beyond Russian sanctions. as he collected CoinDesk, one of the provisions would authorize the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to identify users who transact more than $10,000 in digital currencies. The outlet quoted this section of the draft:
No later than 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network will require United States persons to engage in a transaction worth more than $10,000 in digital assets through [una] or more accounts outside the United States file a report.
Concerns about the possibility of Russians using cryptocurrencies
Warren introduced the bill during a hearing with the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday whose topic of discussion was how cryptocurrencies could be used for illicit financing.
The bill is co-sponsored by 10 other Democratic senators, including the leaders of the Foreign Relations and Agriculture Committees, but not Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown. Some of the co-sponsors, according to the draft, are senators Duckworth, Cortez Masto, Menendez, Van Hollen, Warnock, Smith, Stabenow, Reed, Tester, and Warner.
During the discussion, and before the announcement was made, Warren asked Jonathan Levin, co-founder and CSO of the analysis firm blockchain chain analysishow easy would it be for the “oligarchs“Russians Evading Sanctions Using Crypto.
Echoing the stance of other experts, Levin responded that it would not be easy for Russia’s wealthy officials to hide large or even small sums of money worth $100,000 due to tracking tools. blockchain existing. Mixing services, chain hopping, and dividing large sums of crypto into smaller sums in different wallets would not help an oligarch hide his activities, Levin said. As he covered CoinDeskWarren replied:
I am really surprised by your responses as you charge a lot of money to unravel and track assets through the system and the system keeps developing more ways to hide that money.
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Article by Hannah Estefanía Pérez / DailyBitcoin
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